“Mr. Trump realizes he's in a lot of trouble, and he's in panic mode,” Michael Avenatti told CNN’s Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

Avenatti’s comments came shortly after the National Enquirer, a tabloid that has been friendly to the president, wrote a cover story going after Cohen.

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“It is very clear to me, Jake, what is going on here is that Mr. Trump and the administration have concluded, what I have been saying for weeks, that Michael Cohen is in a lot of trouble and he is going to flip on the president,” Avenatti added.

Avenatti also tweeted out the cover of the Enquirer piece on Cohen just before appearing on the CNN program.

Wow!!! Things are getting so bad that AMI is now starting a campaign to undermine the credibility of Mr. Cohen. Why? Because they know what I have been saying for weeks - he will soon flip on Mr. Trump and they want to be able to claim he is lying when he does. pic.twitter.com/lW8i6StnLz

Earlier this month, the FBI raided Cohen’s office, home and hotel room as part of a criminal investigation into Cohen’s financial dealings. Among other documents, the FBI seized records concerning payments to women who have said they had affairs with Trump, including Daniels.

While at first Trump was supportive of his lawyer and called the probe into Cohen’s actions a “witch hunt,” Avenatti believes the president now wants to distance himself from Cohen.

“This is the first effort on their part to undermine Mr. Cohen’s credibility so they can claim when he does flip that he is a liar, that he has no credibility, etcetera,” Avenatti said.

The National Enquirer is owned by American Media Inc., which is chaired by Trump ally David Pecker.